System and method of facilitating publishing and verification of digital documents on a distributed ledger

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided for creating the composite document and verifying of digital documents on blockchain. A request for verification is received from the user through at least one of a web link or button provided on the document. The composite document containing original content and corresponding embedded information in the metadata is also received along with the request. Upon a receipt of the composite document, the embedded information is retrieved from the metadata of the received document based on the characteristics of the embedded information. The retrieved document is then sent to the verification server to initiate the process of verification. Upon verification of the authenticity of the content, the results are provided to the system, which is then displayed over a user interface. Along with the authenticity of the content, the issue key of the issuing authority, if available, which issues the digital composite document, also gets verified, as an additional non-mandatory step.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No.63/146,865, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD OF FACILITATING PUBLISHING ANDVERIFICATION OF DIGITAL DOCUMENTS ON A DISTRIBUTED LEDGER” and filed onFeb. 8, 2021, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference for all purposes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure generally relates to production ofself-verifiable digital documents and the verification of digitaldocuments on a distributed ledger such as blockchain, independently ofthe issuer, without need of maintaining a stored copy of the content ofthe said document, to ensure the integrity of the document, and morespecifically to the system and method of facilitating verification ofdigital documents based on a distributed ledger such as blockchain.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The background description includes information that may be useful inunderstanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any ofthe information provided herein is prior art or relevant to thepresently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically orimplicitly referenced is prior art.

Verification of authenticity of digital documents is essential forapplications including, such as, verification of the authenticity ofinformation in accreditation documentation, personal identitydocumentation, government issued documents, legal documentation and thelike to ensure the integrity of the document. The information may beconfigured in various formats such as text, image, audio, video, and soon. In many cases, to verify the digital document, the digital documentsmust be stored in a database or some digital storage and correspondingcryptographic hash values are published on a platform like blockchain.During the verification, a hash is calculated corresponding to thedigital documents to be verified at a verification server and is matchedwith the published hash values. In case when both the hash values match,the electronic document is verified. In case when the cryptographic hashvalues do not match with the computed hash values, then the document isconsidered not to be an authenticated document.

The existing process of initiation of verification of a digital documentis performed by clicking on a web link of the location of the storedcopy of the said document, in whole or in parts, or by providing the keyattributes of the document in the web link.

However, in all such cases, the document, in whole or in parts, must bestored somewhere in order to retrieve them at a later point such as to,for example, authenticate a document by way of comparing the content andthe hashes As a result, issuer or its service provider always needs tomaintain a copy or content of documents, in whole or in parts, forcomparison and verification at the server, which causes a problem of apotential risk of data hacking. In addition, the existing verificationdoes not include verification of the authenticity of an issuingauthority. In addition the verification cannot be performed at anyindependent compatible verification server which doesn't have the storedcopy of the content. Thus limiting the adoption and building of trust asindependently verifiability on blockchain.

There is therefore a need in the art for system and method, whichovercome above-mentioned and other limitations of existing approaches.

All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extentas if each individual publication or patent application werespecifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference isinconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein,the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definitionof that term in the reference does not apply.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the present disclosure and are incorporated in andconstitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrateexemplary embodiments of the present disclosure and, together with thedescription, serve to explain the principles of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate an exemplary representation of networkimplementation of the proposed system, in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates exemplary functional components of the proposedsystem in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart showing a method for creating thedocument & initiating the verification using the proposed system, inaccordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary user interface displayed on a usercomputing device for verification, in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary computer system to implement theproposed system in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the presentinvention. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art thatembodiments of the present invention may be practiced without some ofthese specific details.

Embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a computerprogram product, which may include a machine-readable storage mediumtangibly embodying thereon instructions, which may be used to program acomputer (or other electronic devices) to perform a process. Themachine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, fixed (hard)drives, magnetic tape, floppy diskettes, optical disks, compact discread-only memories (CD-ROMs), and magneto-optical disks, semiconductormemories, such as ROMs, PROMs, random access memories (RAMs),programmable read-only memories (PROMs), erasable PROMs (EPROMs),electrically erasable PROMs (EEPROMs), flash memory, magnetic or opticalcards, or other type of media/machine-readable medium suitable forstoring electronic instructions (e.g., computer programming code, suchas software or firmware).

Exemplary embodiments will now be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodimentsare shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many differentforms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments setforth herein. These embodiments are provided so that this disclosurewill be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of theinvention to those of ordinary skill in the art. Moreover, allstatements herein reciting embodiments of the invention, as well asspecific examples thereof, are intended to encompass both structural andfunctional equivalents thereof. Additionally, it is intended that suchequivalents include both currently known equivalents as well asequivalents developed in the future (i.e., any elements developed thatperform the same function, regardless of structure).

Embodiments of the present disclosure herein relate to creating acomposite document and verification of authenticity of content of thedocument on the distributed ledger such as blockchain. In particular,the present disclosure relates to the system and method for creating acomposite document and initiating the verification of the documentwithout any need to store the content of the digital documents in adatabase or a file system or an external storage. The composite documentmay include content such as any or a combination of text, audio, image,video, and so on and meta data information. The metadata may include,but not limited, one or more visual characteristics such as user inputbuttons/links, issuer identity, document content including all itselements such as image, formatting of border, logo, signatures. The metadata may also include a history in detail of all modifications made tothe document, including authorial, ownership, temporal and otherdescriptive information. The metadata may be configured as humanreadable as well as machine readable.

The digital documents may be associated with, for example but notlimited to, academic credentials/records, government documents,workforce credentials/records, contract law, medicine, real estatetransactions and any field in which either the user wants to verify theauthenticity of the document on the distributed ledger e.g., blockchain.

The verification server facilitates users to verify the contents andissuer's identity of the uploaded document. In the verification of thedocument, the documents may be processed to generate a one waycryptographic hash values. The cryptographic hash may be of a singledocument or a root hash of a merkle tree made of cryptographic hashes ofmultiple documents that are hashed and published on blockchain. The oneway cryptographic hash values allows the verification of theauthenticity of the document in a secured manner. According to thepresent disclosure, the composite document may include the content aswell as the meta data information being embedded in the document. Thecontent may refer to the information which is human-readable format suchas a portable document format (“PDF”), the MICROSOFT® WORD® docx, and soon, whereas the embedded information includes meta data corresponding totransaction details of the blockchain network such as but not limitedto, hash values, public keys of the issuing authority, and blockchaintransaction ID when the hash of the document gets published. The metadata may be organized in the JavaScript Object Notation (or “JSON”) orextensible markup language (“XML”) and so on. The hash values areextracted from meta data of the document, which is then matched with thecryptographic hash of the documents obtained through a blockchainnetwork where the hash of the document was published at the time ofissuance of the document. In case, when the match is found, the documentis verified and considered as an authenticated document.

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate exemplary representations of networkimplementation of the proposed system, in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure. The system 102 facilitates thecreation/generation of composite digital document 120 and theverification of the said digital document based on a blockchain network108. In an exemplary embodiment, the system 102 configured as acombination of issuing server 110, composite document 120 and computingdevice 106, whereas the computing device 106 can be operativelyconfigured with an issuing server 110. The issuing server 110 may beoperated by an issuing authority such as university, an institute, acompany, a government organization, or any such organization or aservice provider appointed by any such organisation. The computingdevice 106 can include a variety of computing systems, including but notlimited to, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a notebook, aworkstation, a portable computer, a personal digital assistant, ahandheld device and a mobile device or a cloud platform(storage/server/compute instance).

In an embodiment, the network 104 can be a wireless network, a wirednetwork or a combination thereof that can be implemented as one of thedifferent types of networks, such as Intranet, Local Area Network (LAN),Wide Area Network (WAN), Internet, and the like. Further, the network104 can either be a dedicated network or a shared network. The sharednetwork can represent an association of the different types of networksthat can use variety of protocols, for example, Hypertext TransferProtocol (HTTP), Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol(TCP/IP), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), Automatic repeat request(ARQ), and the like.

In an embodiment, the issuing server 110 generates and issues a copy ofthe composite document 120 to a user, which can be verified at a laterstage, where the issued/composite document contains the content embeddedwith the meta data as well as executable program storing one or moreexecutable instructions, where the one or more executable instructionsare executed by the processor 202 causing the processor to perform oneor more actions according to the present disclosure. The compositedocument 120 is stored at the computing device. Upon receiving the userinput, the executable instructions when executed by processor, processthe composite document containing content along with the meta data.

According to the embodiment, a composite document 120 representinginformation such as but not limited to an academic credentials/records,government documents, workforce credentials/records, legal contact, acertificate, driving license, and so on, is issued by an issuing server110 governed by the issuing authority.

According to the embodiment, the issuing server 110 also generates thehash value of the corresponding document and publishes on the blockchainnetwork 108. The cryptographic hash may be of a single document or aroot hash of a merkle tree made of cryptographic hashes of multipledocuments that are hashed and published on blockchain. The content ofthe document may include border design, logo, name of an entity andassociated information, and so on. In particular, a cryptographic hashis generated based on the document using one or more algorithms such asSHA-256 hashing algorithm. The hash value along with the public key(interchangeably referred to as issue key) of the issuing authority maybe sent to the blockchain network which acts as a public ledger forpublication.

In an embodiment, the system 102 facilitates the creation/generation ofcomposite digital document 120 and the verification of the authenticityof content of the composite document automatically. When the documentneeds to be verified, the user may click on button to provide as aninput for initiating the verification. The composite document mayinclude original content, meta data information embedded with theoriginal content, and executable programmable instructions. The originalcontent as well the meta data are configured as both the human readableinformation and machine readable information. In an example, the metadata information may be, by way of example but not limited to, organizedaccording to the JavaScript Object Notation (or “JSON”) or extensiblemarkup language (“XML”). The digital composite document is provided witha link or button through which the user sends the request through itsentity device 106 for initiating the verification. Upon clicking on thelink or pressing the button, the system 102 initiates the process ofverification. At the system 102, the embedded information such as hashvalues, issue keys, and so on are retrieved from the digital compositedocument and then transmitted to the verification server 112 forverification. The verification server 112 may compare the hash valuesreceived from the system 102 with the hash values stored at theblockchain network 108. In case, when the match is found, the documentis considered as the authentic document. When the match is not found,the document is not considered as the authentic document. Theverification results may be displayed on the computing device associatedwith the user.

In an embodiment, the system 102 may also send signing/public keysassociated with the document along with the digital document to theverification server 112. The verification server 112 may receive thesigning keys associated with the transaction details of the blockchainnetwork and then compare with the published signing keys of the issuingauthority. Based on the comparison, it is verified whether the signingkeys associated with the document matches with the signing keys of theissuing authority.

FIG. 2 illustrates exemplary functional components of the system 102 inaccordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In an aspect, the system 102 may comprise one or more processor(s) 202.The one or more processor(s) 202 may be implemented as one or moremicroprocessors, microcomputers, microcontrollers, digital signalprocessors, central processing units, logic circuitries, and/or anydevices that manipulate data based on operational instructions. Amongother capabilities, the one or more processor(s) 202 are configured tofetch and execute computer-readable instructions stored in a memory 204of the system 102. The memory 204 may store one or morecomputer-readable instructions or routines, which may be fetched andexecuted to create or share the data units over a network service. Thememory 204 may comprise any non-transitory storage device including, forexample, volatile memory such as RAM, or non-volatile memory such asEPROM, flash memory, and the like.

The system 102 may also comprise an interface(s) 206. The interface(s)206 may comprise a variety of interfaces, for example, interfaces fordata input and output devices, referred to as I/O devices, storagedevices, and the like. The interface(s) 206 may facilitate communicationof the system 102 with various devices coupled to the system 102 such asan input unit and an output unit. The interface(s) 206 may also providea communication pathway for one or more components of the system 102.Examples of such components include, but are not limited to, processingengine(s) 208 and database 210.

The processing engine(s) 208 may be implemented as a combination ofhardware and programming (for example, programmable instructions) toimplement one or more functionalities of the processing engine(s) 208.In examples described herein, such combinations of hardware andprogramming may be implemented in several different ways. For example,the programming for the processing engine(s) 208 may be processorexecutable instructions stored on a non-transitory machine-readablestorage medium and the hardware for the processing engine(s) 208 maycomprise a processing resource (for example, one or more processors), toexecute such instructions. In the present examples, the machine-readablestorage medium may store instructions that, when executed by theprocessing resource, implement the processing engine(s) 208.

In an exemplary embodiment, the processing engine(s) 208 may include areceiving unit 212, a retrieving unit 214, initiating unit 216 and otherunits(s) 218.

It would be appreciated that units being described are only exemplaryunits and any other unit or sub-unit may be included as part of thesystem 102 or as part of the control unit of the system 102. These unitstoo may be merged or divided into super-units or sub-units as may beconfigured.

Receiving Unit 212

The system 102 may include a receiving unit 212 that may be configuredto receive an input from the user. The input may be received from theuser through one or more a web link or button provided on the document.In other words, when the user clicks on the link or presses the button,a request is automatically raised for verification. The system 102 mayreceive the request from the user, where the request pertains to theinitiation of verification.

Retrieving Unit 214

The system 102 may include a retrieving unit 214 that may be configuredto retrieve embedded information pertaining to blockchain transactiondetails from the stored composite document 120, where the embeddedinformation may include hash values, public keys, blockchain transactionID, and so on. In an embodiment, the embedded information is configuredas a structured data according to JSON, XML, HTML, and so on. In anembodiment, based on the characteristic of the embedded information, theretrieving unit 214 may retrieve the embedded information from thedocument.

Initiating Unit 216

The system 102 may include an initiating unit 216 that may be configuredto send the retrieved document to the verification server to initiatethe process of verification. The verification server may compare thehash values of the document with the hash obtained through theblockchain network. In an embodiment, the server may send theverification results to the user over the entity device.

Other Unit(s) 218

The system may include other unit(s) 218 may be configured to sendsigning keys associated with the issuing authority retrieved through themeta data to the verification server 112. The verification server mayreceive the signing keys retrieved through the meta data and thencompare with the published signing keys of the issuing authority. Basedon the comparison, it is verified whether the signing keys associatedwith the document matches with the issuing authority. The verificationof the signing key is performed when the published signing keys of theissuing authority is available with the system. In an embodiment, theresults of verification of signing keys can be displayed over the entitydevice 106 e.g., over a pop up window at the time of verification of thedocument.

The system 102 may include an issuing server 110 that may be implementedas a combination of hardware and programming (for example, programmableinstructions) to implement one or more functionalities of the issuingserver 110. In examples described herein, such combinations of hardwareand programming may be implemented in several different ways. Forexample, the programming for the issuing server 110 may be processorexecutable instructions stored on a non-transitory machine-readablestorage medium and the hardware for the issuing server 110 may comprisea processing resource (for example, one or more processors), to executesuch instructions. In the present examples, the machine-readable storagemedium may store instructions that, when executed by the processingresource, implement the issuing server 110. The database 110-6 maycomprise data that is either stored or generated as a result offunctionalities implemented by any of the components of the IssuingServer 110.

In an exemplary embodiment, the issuing server 110 may include areceiving unit 110-1, a processing unit 110-2, publishing unit 110-3,issuing unit 110-4, and other units(s) 110-5.

It would be appreciated that units being described are only exemplaryunits and any other unit or sub-unit may be included as part of theissuing server 110. These units too may be merged or divided intosuper-units or sub-units as may be configured.

The receiving unit 110-1 may be configured to receive a user input froma user. The user input may pertain to a request for providing thecomposite document (CD) 120. The processing unit 110-2 may be configuredto generate the composite document (CD) 120. In particular, theprocessing unit 110-2 may be configured to embed the meta data with theoriginal content. The processing unit also processes the document togenerate the hash keys of the document, which then are published on theblockchain network 108 by the publishing unit 110-3. The issuing unit110-4 may issue the composite document to the user.

Thus, the present disclosure provides the composite digital documentcontaining data in a human readable/comprehensible as well as embeddedinformation which is in machine readable format and human readableformat. In this manner, the digital composite document isself-sufficient as it contains the original format as well as content asmetadata or hidden field which has been hashed while issuing. Itprovides the user with an interface in the form of a button thatinitiates the verification of the content of the document in a userfriendly manner. The process also eliminates the need to store any copyof the document's content online in any database in order to completethe verification. Additionally, the proposed system does not require anymanually uploading any file on to the verification server. Moreover, theproposed system also verifies the signing keys of the issuing authority,as an additional step, when the published signing keys are available onthe verification server. Signing Keys verification is an optional step,not a mandatory condition for the purpose of this application.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart showing a method for creating thedocument & initiating the verification using the proposed system, inaccordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

According to the method 300, the digital document is generated at step302 a and technical metadata of the digital document is generated atstep 302 b. Based on the generated document and the generated technicaldata, step 304 is performed i.e. the technical metadata pertaining tothe blockchain transaction is embedded into the digital document in formof meta data so as to form the composite digital document. Thelink/button is provided for receiving input to initial the verificationas per step 306. Upon receiving the input through the link/button, theverification gets initiated as per step 308. In particular, along withthe input through the link/button, the digital composite documentcontaining the original information and embedded blockchain transactioninformation and other metadata stored in the composite document may beretrieved. The embedded information is retrieved from the compositedocument and then the retrieved embedded information is sent to theverification server for the verification.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary user interface also referred to as thehuman readable part of the composite document displayed on a usercomputing device, in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 4 , the user interface 400 may beconfigured to display the content to the user. The user interface 400may display content 401 on the computing device as shown in FIG. 4 . Theuser interface 400 may also include one or more first input means 402for initiating verification and one or more second input means 404allowing the user to share the content on any of the social mediaplatforms. In an exemplary embodiment, the one or more first input means402 may include the first link/button configured on the left side of thedocument over the interface, whereas the one or more second input means404 may include second link/buttons configured on the right side of thedocument over the interface. However, it would be easily understood by aperson skilled in the art that the one or more input means 402 and theone or more second input means 404 may be configured anywhere on thedocument over the interface.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary computer system 500 to implement theproposed system in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

As shown in FIG. 5 , computer system can include an external storagedevice 510, a bus 520, a main memory 530, a read only memory 540, a massstorage device 550, communication port 560, and a processor 570. Aperson skilled in the art will appreciate that computer system mayinclude more than one processor and communication ports. Examples ofprocessor 570 include, but are not limited to, an Intel® Itanium® orItanium 2 processor(s), or AMD® Opteron® or Athlon MP® processor(s),Motorola® lines of processors, FortiSOC™ system on a chip processors orother future processors. Processor 570 may include various modulesassociated with embodiments of the present invention. Communication port560 can be any of an RS-232 port for use with a modem based dialupconnection, a 10/100 Ethernet port, a Gigabit or 10 Gigabit port usingcopper or fiber, a serial port, a parallel port, or other existing orfuture ports. Communication port 560 may be chosen depending on anetwork, such a Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), orany network to which computer system connects.

Memory 530 can be Random Access Memory (RAM), or any other dynamicstorage device commonly known in the art. Read only memory 540 can beany static storage device(s) e.g., but not limited to, a ProgrammableRead Only Memory (PROM) chip for storing static information e.g.,start-up or BIOS instructions for processor 570. Mass storage 550 may beany current or future mass storage solution, which can be used to storeinformation and/or instructions. Exemplary mass storage solutionsinclude, but are not limited to, Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment(PATA) or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) hard disk drivesor solid-state drives (internal or external, e.g., having UniversalSerial Bus (USB) and/or Firewire interfaces), e.g. those available fromSeagate (e.g., the Seagate Barracuda 7102 family) or Hitachi (e.g., theHitachi Deskstar 7K1000), one or more optical discs, Redundant Array ofIndependent Disks (RAID) storage, e.g. an array of disks (e.g., SATAarrays), available from various vendors including Dot Hill SystemsCorp., LaCie, Nexsan Technologies, Inc. and Enhance Technology, Inc.

Bus 520 communicatively couples processor(s) 570 with the other memory,storage and communication blocks. Bus 520 can be, e.g. a PeripheralComponent Interconnect (PCI)/PCI Extended (PCI-X) bus, Small ComputerSystem Interface (SCSI), USB or the like, for connecting expansioncards, drives and other subsystems as well as other buses, such a frontside bus (FSB), which connects processor 570 to software system.

Optionally, operator and administrative interfaces, e.g. a display,keyboard, and a cursor control device, may also be coupled to bus 520 tosupport direct operator interaction with computer systems. Otheroperator and administrative interfaces can be provided through networkconnections connected through communication port 560. External storagedevice 510 can be any kind of external hard-drives, floppy drives,IOMEGA® Zip Drives, Compact Disc-Read Only Memory (CD-ROM), CompactDisc-Rewritable (CD-RW), Digital Video Disk-Read Only Memory (DVD-ROM).Components described above are meant only to exemplify variouspossibilities. In no way should the aforementioned exemplary computersystem limit the scope of the present disclosure.

Thus, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art thatthe diagrams, schematics, illustrations, and the like representconceptual views or processes illustrating systems and methods embodyingthis invention. The functions of the various elements shown in thefigures may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware as well ashardware capable of executing associated software. Additionally oralternatively, the functions of the various elements shown in thefigures may be provided through the use of shared computinginfrastructure in the cloud. Similarly, any switches shown in thefigures are conceptual only. Their function may be carried out throughthe operation of program logic, through dedicated logic, through theinteraction of program control and dedicated logic, or even manually,the particular technique being selectable by the entity implementingthis invention. Those of ordinary skill in the art further understandthat the exemplary hardware, software, processes, methods, and/oroperating systems described herein are for illustrative purposes and,thus, are not intended to be limited to any particular name.

While embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated anddescribed, it will be clear that the invention is not limited to theseembodiments only. Numerous modifications, changes, variations,substitutions, and equivalents will be apparent to those skilled in theart, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, asdescribed in the claim.

In the foregoing description, numerous details are set forth. It will beapparent, however, to one of ordinary skill in the art having thebenefit of this disclosure, that the present disclosure can be practicedwithout these specific details. In some instances, well-known structuresand devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, toavoid obscuring the present invention.

While the foregoing describes various embodiments of the disclosure,other and further embodiments of the disclosure may be devised withoutdeparting from the basic scope thereof. The disclosure is not limited tothe described embodiments, versions or examples, which are included toenable a person having ordinary skill in the art to make and use thedisclosure when combined with information and knowledge available to theperson having ordinary skill in the art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for creating the composite document andverifying of digital documents on a distributed ledger withoutmaintaining or storing, on any server/verification portal, any of thecontent of the said digital document, that needs to be verified, themethod comprising: receiving a request for verification from a userthrough at least one of a web link or a button provided on a compositedocument, the composite document containing original content andcorresponding embedded information in the metadata is also receivedalong with the request; upon a receipt of the composite document,retrieving the embedded information from the metadata of the receivedcomposite document based on the characteristics of the embeddedinformation; sending the received composite document to a verificationserver to initiate the process of verification; conducting the processof verification, using only the content/metadata received with therequest on the verification server without needing to compare it withany stored information related to any of the content of the said digitaldocument, on any server/verification portal, that needs to be verified;upon verification of the authenticity of the content, providing theresults to the system; and displaying the results over a user interface.2. The method of claim 1, further comprising along with the authenticityof the content, verifying the issue key of the issuing authority, whichissues the digital composite document.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinthe distributed ledger is a blockchain.